Yao, Rockets stop Magic in their tracks

ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- The Houston Rockets cooled off a
hot team on Saturday, taking control late en route to a 100-95
victory to snap the Orlando Magic's five-game winning streak.

Yao Ming collected 22 points and 13 boards and Tracy McGrady
added 17 points as Houston won its third straight.

Despite both the Magic and Rockets playing on back-to-back
nights - picking up road wins over Indiana and Washington,
respectively - the two teams put forth strong efforts in a
contest that saw 18 lead changes and 13 ties.

"This was a very important game for us," Rockets coach Rick
Adelman said. "With both teams coming off a back-to-back, we
had talked about trying to get off to a quick start. To get two
road wins on a back-to-back is nice; it's good for us."

Ron Artest's jumper with 3:33 left gave the Rockets a six-point
lead and they were able to hang on from there.

Yao and the Rockets won the battle of the big men from the
start, as the All-Star center scored 10 points over the first
4:12 of the game.

"We had no resistance against Yao early in the game, let him get
the ball deep in the paint against us and he got it going,"
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.

Artest finished with 11 points and Rafer Alston added 17 and
seven assists against a Magic team that lacked the personnel to
keep up with the visiting Rockets.

With Hedo Turkoglu out of action due to the flu and Dwight
Howard in foul trouble early and often, the rest of Orlando's
team was left with a significant void to fill.

"It's definitely a big help," Adelman said. "Not having him on
the court is a huge, huge difference for them at both ends of
the court."

Jameer Nelson collected 21 points and six assists with support
from a strong effort by Orlando's reserves.

A weak spot for most of the season, the Magic's bench - led by
J.J. Redick's 13 points - did its part to keep Orlando in
contention until the last few minutes of the game.

"We came up a little short," Nelson said. "They're pretty good.
In the end, we didn't make shots down the stretch. We got good
looks at the basket. They obviously got good looks and they
made some tough shots."

Nursing a one-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, the
Rockets went on a modest 11-5 run to take a 97-90 advantage -
and hung on from there. Yao buried three buckets during the
run, including a nifty turnaround jumper with 1:52 remaining to
extend the lead to six.

"If he can do that consistently, we will be a very good team,
especially coming down the stretch of games because he is
surrounded by shooters," McGrady said. "He is also surrounded
by playmakers. We are leaning on him."

Meanwhile, it was Houston's suffocating defense that took away
Orlando's two biggest weapons - Howard and perimeter shooting.
The Magic hit just 7-of-27 from 3-point range on the night,
while Howard was held to just four first-half points in only
seven minutes of action due to foul trouble.

He picked up his fourth foul 37 seconds into the third quarter
and was not a significant factor thereafter, finishing with 13
points and nine rebounds.

Rashard Lewis added 18 points but was just 6-of-21 from the
field.

"It's frustrating," Lewis said. "The shots were there, we just
couldn't hit them when it counted. The bench needed to play
well and did that in the second half, but we couldn't quite get
it done."